Jim Springston

James Charles “Jim” Springston, 63, rural Slater, Mo., died Monday, Oct. 10, 2011, at Life Care Center in Carrollton, Mo.

Memorial services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Atherton Restoration Branch of Jesus Christ Church in Atherton, Mo. Memorial visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Campbell-Lewis Funeral Home in Marshall, Mo. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Melanoma Research Foundation or Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in care of the funeral home. 

An online guestbook is available at www.campbell-lewis.com

Born May 4, 1948, in Iola, he was the son of the late Charles Harrison and Doris Ballard Springston. He was a 1966 graduate of Iola High School and a 1970 graduate of Kansas State Teacher’s College in Emporia. On Aug. 17, 1969, he married his high school sweetheart, Phyllis Heath, who survives. He was a production buyer during his career, and due to health reasons, he was forced to retire in 2009 while employed at Duke Manufacturing in Sedalia, Mo.. His family was an important part of his life, as well as his active participation in the church. He was a member of the Atherton Restoration Branch of Jesus Christ Church and was active in the priesthood for over 30 years.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by one daughter, Heather Gessling Johnson and her husband, Larry D., Marshall; one son, Heath Alan, Kansas City, Mo.; one grandson, Tucker Dean Johnson; one half-brother, Wade Vogel of Iola; and two nieces, Shannon Vogel and Klair Vogel of Iola.

He was preceded in death by his parents, one grandchild and one brother, Raymond Springston.

Perry’s history short a page

Gov. Rick Perry was talking about America’s problems to fraternity students at Dartmouth College. 

He said: “Our founding fathers never meant for Washington, D.C., to be the fount of all wisdom. As a matter of fact they were very much afraid of that because they’d just had this experience with this far-away government that had centralized thought process and planning and what have you, and then it was actually the reason that we fought the revolution in the 16th century was to get away from that kind of onerous crown if you will.”

There are two kinds of errors in that statement. First, the war was fought in the 18th century. He was just a couple of hundred years off. That’s the kind of slip a person can make when his tongue is in gear but his mind isn’t. It can be forgiven. 

The second error was far more troubling. The governor said we decided to declare independence from England and fight to back up that decision because we didn’t like the centralized government that a monarchy produces. That explanation fits right in with Gov. Perry’s opposition to the federal government of the United States. But it is a grossly inaccurate explanation of the causes of the American Revolution.

As any Tea Party member will happily explain, Americans revolted because they wanted to keep the wealth they were producing and run their own affairs. They not only resented the heavy tax on tea and the grants of their land the British king handed out to his cronies, but they also were tired of kowtowing to Redcoats, British governors and British companies and decided to send them back home.

Maybe Gov. Perry knows this and ignored the facts to make an anti-government point. But maybe he actually hasn’t bothered to learn much about our nation’s beginnings.

One must hope that any Dartmouth students who were truly listening walked away from that meeting shaking their heads and muttering, “that guy isn’t smart enough to be president.”

Yep.

 

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

Dieker wins youth trap shoot division

ELSMORE  — Drake Dieker of Iola was the top marksman in the 13-16-year-old division of last Saturday’s youth trap shoot. Dieker had to work a little overtime, winning a three-way shoot-off.

Dieker and Cody Crabtree of Pattonsburg, Mo. won the two divisions. Crabtree broke 20 of 25 clay targets in the 12-and-younger age group.

The fifth annual free Eastern Kansas Youth Trap Shoot was held at the Lone Tree Gun Club near Elsmore, owned and operated by Ron and Betty Wrestler.

“This event was started five years ago to help promote the sport of trap shooting and hunting. It has been very successful in providing youngsters with gun safety and competition shooting,” said Richard Diehl, who established the event.

About 50 boys and girls 16 and younger participated in the shoot Saturday. Safari Club International of Kansas City along with other financial donors and volunteers made the event possible.

Each shooter shot 25 clay targets and every shooter had an opportunity to win the top prize shotguns for each division, plus their names went in a drawing for another shotgun.

Each shooter was given a prize provided by sponsors of the event.

“Some of the young shooters return to Lone Tree Gun Club on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons for practice and competition shooting,” Diehl said. 

“Over the past four years three of our very successful young shooters have competed at the Grand American Trap Shoot in Sparta, Ill.”

After the youth shoot Saturday, there was open shooting for all ages.

Seize the day in final SEKs

Carpe diem.

Seize the day.

It is time.

Iola High’s fall sports programs have reached the end of the road. Today and Friday, Iola High will close a long chapter in athletic history.

The Fillies’ volleyball team is at Fort Scott tonight in its final matches in Southeast Kansas League play. They take on Fort Scott and Chanute.

This afternoon Iola High’s cross country runners host their last SEK League cross country meet. Races begin at 4 o’clock at Riverside Park.

Two weeks ago, Iola High’s girls competed in their final SEK League tennis tournament.

On Friday, Mustang football will be in Fort Scott for its last SEK game. It’s also a Class 4A district game.

Iola was one of the eight founding members of the SEK, which was established in its current form in 1927. Before that there were at least two other leagues that used the name Southeast Kansas League and had some of the members in common with the SEK of today.

According to SEK League records kept by the late Jack Harris of the Parsons Sun and now in the safekeeping of Scott Nuzum of the Fort Scott Tribune,  the Mustangs and Fillies have several sports’ championships under their belts.

Let’s start with fall sports.

Iola won volleyball championships through an SEK tournament in 1986 and 1987. Without a league tournament in place any more, the Fillies won SEK volleyball championships in 1999 and 2005. Iola has never won a girls’ tennis team championship nor a boys’ team league championship.

In football, Iola tied with Parsons for the SEK title in 1942 and won it outright in 1947. The SEK split into Upper and Lower Divisions and the Mustangs tied with Chanute and Labette County for the Lower Division title in 1985, won the Lower Division outright in 1986 and tied for the title with Parsons in 1988.

Iola’s boys won SEK cross country championships in 1970, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1990, 1993, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2008. The Fillies won SEK titles in 1980, 1984 and 1985.

Basketball: the Mustangs were the SEK champions in 1948-49, 1975-76 (tied with Pittsburg); the Fillies tied with Independence in 1975-76, tied with Fort Scott and Labette County in 1999-2000, won it outright in 2002-2003 and tied with Fort Scott in 2004-2005.

Track: the Mustangs won a title in 1914, 1968, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1992, 1993 and 1994; the Fillies claimed SEK titles in 1977, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1999, 2000 and 2006.

Iola has not had championships in wrestling, baseball or softball.

Bluegrass, country group prepares to rock Fine Arts center during weekend’s events

The Isaacs, a multi-award winning family group will bring its country and bluegrass gospel music to the Bowlus Fine Arts Center Saturday.

The 6 p.m. concert is the next in the Southeast Kansas Christian Artist Series. Tickets are available for $15 for orchestra seating and $12 for balcony. Student tickets are available in the balcony for $6 apiece.

Tickets can be purchased by calling 365-7496.

The Isaacs — Mother Lily and her children Ben, Sonya and Rebecca — are based out of LaFollette, Tenn., just outside Knoxville.

The members play their own acoustic instruments and utilize a tight, family harmony certain to appeal to a variety of audiences.

In their 30-year history, the Isaacs have played a wide assortment of venues. They sing frequently at the Grand Ole Opry and are active members on the Gaither Homecoming Videos and Concert Series. They’ve played in front of packed auditoriums and arenas around the world, as well as at various sporting events and political rallies.

Lily Isaacs is a vocalist and matriarch of the group. She was born in Germany after World War II to two Jewish Holocaust survivors and moved to the United States when she was 2. 

She became a Christian in 1971 when a death in the family brought her to church for the first time. That night, she began singing Christian music and helped build the foundation of the Isaacs ministry.

Siblings Ben, Sonya and Rebecca all sing and play different instruments. Ben, the oldest, sings and plays upright bass on stage. He spends much of his off time in the studio producing and playing bass on numerous other artists’ albums including Merle Haggard, George Jones, a Jimmy Martin Tribute Project and Cherry Holmes, and has received five Grammy nominations for the
latter two artists. 

Sonya, also living near Nashville, is newly married to Jimmy Yeary, and is the middle daughter and mandolin player and vocalist. Rebecca, the youngest sister, sings and plays guitar and resides in LaFollette with husband John Bowman and their children, Levi and Jakobi.  

The Isaacs have made frequent guest appearances on many other artists records including Dolly Parton, Trace Adkins, Brad Paisley, Paul Simon, Vince Gill, Randy Owen, Trisha Yearwood, Ralph Stanley and Mark Lowry.

Their Saturday performance is the first time The Isaacs will have performed in Iola.

Why do we rate Congress so low?

Only 14 percent of registered voters say members of Congress deserved to be re-elected, and 84 percent think it’s time to throw the rascals out and give “someone else a chance,” according to a recent New York Times/CBS news poll. Twelve percent of those polled think Congress does a reputable job, which matches its historical low. (Pollsters were not able to plumb the figures any deeper to determine what Congress had done to make those 12 percent so supportive.)

There are two elements to the poll’s results that should be kept in mind: First, the complexity of our troubled economy is beyond any legislative fix that Congress could imagine. They talk the game because that’s what we ask them to do. They could help at the edges, but there isn’t any step 1, step 2 and step 3 program that eliminates unemployment, restores our balance of trade, upgrades our educational system and keeps all costs low. Second, despite this reality they continue the charade in a highly partisan sense, both parties forcefully arguing that they could actually solve things if the other party didn’t exist.

This is what the public sees and why it reacts so negatively. It’s like watching 8-year-olds do battle, while the public eggs them on.

But the problem runs deeper than that. The government is much larger than the 535 members of Congress. We have the executive branch of government, whose job it is to make sure the trains run on time, and hundreds of thousands of additional people employed to keep things just as they are, or to enrich themselves, regardless of the impact.

Why is this? Because we have developed a built-in expectation that the government is responsible for curing all ills, no matter our collective idiocy. It’s a little like the health care system being expected to cure all our ills, no matter our lifestyle choices.

There are obvious responsibilities that must be borne by our government, including public safety, the collection of taxes, the maintenance of income security programs, etc. But can we really expect our legislators to be our saviors for all ills?

 At the moment, that’s our expectation and we have an entire sub-economy employed with the expressed purpose of figuring out ways to tap the system so that they or their clients profit. It has spun so far out of control that former Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Washington Post he had no clue just how many people the department employed, or how much money was truly being spent. His is not an isolated case.

But the expectations persist.

And how is that working for us?

It’s a difficult thing to attack. Humans have a natural instinct to want to help, and to take control. And we think we are better at it than we are because we take all challenges and reduce and simplify them to something that matches our answers.

It would almost be funny if it weren’t so costly and so damaging to our national psyche.

The answer is not to give up; but to set for ourselves a more realistic set of expectations. We need to first realize that there is no single catalog of answers to anything. 

We need to step back from absolutes and understand the power of the give and take that represents human nature. We can’t be at war with ourselves and progress. Until we find our balance, we will continue to degrade the efforts of those who lead us, which just ramps up the partisanship that stops progress in its tracks.

 It starts with us.

 

By Emerson Lynn, 

St. Albans (Vt.) Messenger

MVJH girls go 2-1

ST. PAUL — Marmaton Valley Junior High’s volleyball team took its first loss of the season Monday.

The Wildcats lost in A-team action 25-21, 25-15 to host St. Paul. Lindsey McNeil served for eight points and Ruby Mann had four service points. Mackenize Tynon served for three points, Tanna Lutz had two points and Ashlynn Pinkerton had one service point.

 That loss was balanced with two victories on the court. The Wildcat A-team defeated Altoona-Midway 25-15, 25-10 and Oswego 25-11, 25-20.

Mustang JV moves to 7-0

ALTAMONT — Iola High’s junior varsity football team won a defensive battle Monday against host Labette County High’s Grizzlies.

With seven minutes left in the game, Adam Kauth had a quarterback sneak into the end zone for the Mustangs. Iola won 6-0 to go 7-0 for the season.

Tyler McIntosh had two interceptions for the Iola defense. Bryce Misenhelter recovered a muffed punt.

The Mustang JV has one more game — at home Monday against Fort Scott.

King-sized modified race event coming to Humboldt

HUMBOLDT  — Reserved-seating tickets are still available for fans wanting to lay claim to the best seats in the house when Humboldt Speedway hosts the inaugural King of America Modified Nationals, Wednesday through Saturday, Oct. 19-22.

Sanctioned by the United States Modified Touring Series, the one-of-a-kind blockbuster event is expected to attract the biggest names in open wheel dirt modified racing, and many of the sport’s most talented drivers are already pre-entered.

Four-day reserved tickets are on sale now for $75 by calling 515-832-7944. Orders received by Tuesday were to be mailed the same day. 

After Tuesday, reserved tickets purchased by phone will be available for pick up at the Will Call window on the day of the event.

Grandstand tickets on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are $20 each while Saturday’s show is $25. All single-day tickets are general admission and will only be sold on the night of races.

For camping, ATV and/or golf cart permits, call 620-473-3694 or e-mail rwhitworth@cableone.net.

With a whopping $15,000 going to Saturday night’s feature winner and each of the main event qualifiers pocketing a minimum $1,500, the King of America Modified Nationals is the richest dirt track race in the history of the Sunshine State.

The program will be similar to the World Modified Dirt Track Championship that was held at the end of July at the Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn., with a few different twists and format changes from the successful show that drew more than 150 entries.

Drivers register to qualify on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, but may also purchase a “mulligan” that allows them to attempt to qualify a second day if they aren’t satisfied with their result on their first day. Mulligans are an additional $100, must be purchased at the time of entry and are non-refundable.

Group time trials will be staged each of the three days along with heat races and main events with drivers earning points for their performances in each. 

The top-6 points earners each day will earn one of 18 guaranteed starting spots in Saturday’s championship main event, with the highest overall points earner during the three days of qualifying garnering the pole for the big dance.

Saturday’s program will feature an “alphabet soup” of main events that will culminate with a 30-car starting field for the championship race that will feature a three-wide start. Even if a driver has some tough luck during qualifying, he or she still has the chance to climb the ladder of main events on Saturday to earn a spot in the finale.

The driver that advances the most positions throughout Saturday’s main events will earn an extra $500.

Nearly $80,000 has been earmarked for Saturday’s “A” Main alone, with a total purse of more than $130,000 posted for the four-day extravaganza.

Frank Clubine

Word has been received of the death of Iolan Frank P. Clubine, 74, on Monday, Oct. 10, 2011, at Overland Park Regional Medical Center.

Funeral arrangements are pending and will be announced later by Waugh-Yokum & Friskel Memorial Chapel in Iola.